Kyle Busch impresses with strong effort in NASCAR’s longest race

NASCAR’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600, can be a grind for a driver who’s perfectly healthy, let alone someone still recovering from major injuries to both their legs.

Nevertheless, Kyle Busch showed no lingering effects from the broken right leg and left foot that sidelined him for the first 11 Sprint Cup Series races of the season, as he finished a competitive 11th on Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

For much of the evening Busch ran with the leaders and was a fixture inside the top-10. The only reason he didn’t produce a better result was because several teams gambled on fuel mileage and didn’t pit over the final 60 laps. That includes race winner Carl Edwards, a teammate of Busch’s at Joe Gibbs Racing, who was slower than Busch all night.

“I feel pretty good,” Busch said. “All in all, I felt like that was a great race for us. We ran really strong. We ran up front and we showed we had some speed. You know, it certainly is frustrating to finish where we did. That’s disappointing. But sometimes you do win these things by fuel‑mileage races, so congratulations to our teammate.”

Busch was hurt when he struck an unprotected wall during the Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway. After extensive rehabilitation, he returned sooner than expected, making his comeback the week before in the exhibition All-Star Race, an event that features a series of short heat races.

In case Busch couldn’t go the distance, JGR had Erik Jones on standby Sunday. But Busch completed the full 600-mile distance. He admitted afterward to being a “little sore,” but expected to feel “more beat up and tired” than he did.

“I can’t say enough about everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, everyone pulling for me and cheering for me and helping me get back into this race car,” Busch said. “To get out there and have a strong run means a lot. I admit I’ve probably got a little left foot soreness, but other than that, everything is pretty hunky‑dory.”

Despite missing nearly half the regular season, NASCAR granted Busch a waiver that made him eligible to qualify for its playoffs -- provided he wins a race and finishes 30th or better in the standings. But there is much work to do if Busch is to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Busch gained 10 points at Charlotte on 30th-place Tony Stewart, who finished 21st. But he still remains 169 points in arrears with 14 races to go and will likely need to average an average finish of 16th to earn a Chase berth.